The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Milford-raised actress to stream cooking series
Milford-raised Christy Carlson Romano will begin an eight-episode streaming series called “Bucket List Bistro” Thursday, Aug. 27, on Fox Now, Fox’s YouTube channel and Hulu.
The actress and singer, known for her role as Ren Stevens in the Disney Channel sitcom “Even Stevens” and as the voice of animated “Kim Possible,” will tap into quarantine wanderlust by cooking up dishes and recipes from exotic and fun locales. According to a show description, the 5 p.m. Thursday show is inspired by Romano’s fantasies of where she can take her daughters when the COVID-19 pandemic is effectively over.
In the premiere, she and her family recreate a popular Thaiinspired dish and check in on that culture.
Making theater work in 2020
TheaterWorks in Hartford will begin a membership model Monday, promising 12 plays in 12 months for 12 payments of $20.21 (the price evokes a better year, we hope). Instead of five live plays during a season, subscribers will get one production a month, streamed to their home, whether it be a play, developmental reading or musical.
Subscribers can cancel the monthly charge (which is also available at $35 for a household or $75 for Pay It Forward) at any time. A year’s subscription is available for $195 ($375 for a household or $900 as sub and sponsor of students). The online action will begin in September for the Pearl Street theater whose artistic director is Rob Ruggiero.
Compounce calling it a year
Lake Compounce amusement park in Bristol has decided to forego its annual Haunted Graveyard and Holiday Lights attractions this year and close for 2020 after Labor Day, officials announced Thursday. The COVID-shortened summer season opened July 6 for what turned out to be two months. Officials said the decision was based on “uncertainty” about COVID going into fall.
Sage musical advice
Connecticut-raise singer-songwriter Rachael Sage will be one of five acts on the bill for the streamed concert series “Music My Mother Would Not Like” on Tuesday, Aug. 25, at 8 p.m. The series features nationally touring
seasoned artists each week, all with Zoom experience. Each artist will play for 20 minutes. The artists receive an even share of the donations. Registration is required for each concert, says a release on the series.
“I grew up in CT,” said Sage in an email, “have recorded all my albums in CT, and have many fond memories of playing in New Haven especially at Cafe 9, the Outer Space/ Space Ballroom and the CT Folk Festival. While I’ve officially been a New Yorker for many years, since Covid-19 I have been gratefully living in New Haven (I found myself here when my tour ended abruptly in March and have been safely sheltering in place here since then). I have enjoyed beautiful walks in East Rock and through the Yale campus, and as a cancer survivor, I am especially grateful to have had access to the wonderful medical professionals at Yale New Haven Hospital.”
Alt-pop artist Sage will also be part of the streaming event “Bravery On Fire: A Benefit for Women’s Cancer Awareness” Sept. 24 at 8 p.m., featuring a diverse group of artists who will perform and speak including Grammy Award winner Paula Cole, Crys Matthews, Jill Sobule and Ingrid Michaelson. All proceeds will benefit the Foundation For Women’s Cancer. Sage, an Independent Music Award winner, found inspiration for the songs on her latest album “Character” during the challenges she faced amid a gynecological cancer diagnosis and eventual recovery.
“From my temporary digs here in East Rock, I’m looking forward to performing and hosting ‘Bravery On Fire.’ ... In these unsettling times, it is truly a privilege to be able to continue to create positive awareness around an issue that affects so many.”
HBO has sex-cult doc ‘The Vow’
In 1998, a couple of selfhelp experts, Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman, began a self-improvement group near Albany, N.Y. Within a few years, NXIVM grew into an influential, international organization with thousands of members, including Hollywood stars, wealthy heirs and the children of political dynasties. What could go wrong?
Well, as you may have seen in the headlines, a lot. HBO on Sunday, Aug. 23, will debut “The Vow” at 10 p.m., a nine-part documentary series directed by Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer that explores the world of the controversial group that became the subject of controversial reports in 2003 but didn’t blow up in the media until 2017 when the New York Times ran a story with revelations about a secret, female sect called DOS, derived from a Latin acronym meaning “Master of Obedient Women.” Its selfproclaimed guru, Raniere, has been convicted of federal crimes including sex trafficking of children, conspiracy, and conspiracy to commit forced labor.
Delany to deliver Windham-Campbell Lecture
Novelist and critic Samuel R. Delany will deliver the prestigious WindhamCampbell Lecture for 2020, in a webcast at 5 p.m. Sept. 26 at windhamcampbell.org . Delany taught literature and creative writing at the University of Massachusetts and Temple University, having won four Nebula Awards and a Hugo Award by the time he was 27. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2002.
School’s Out(side) in new/old film
The Ely Center in New Haven is revisited the 36minute film “School’s Out: Lessons from a Forest Kindergarten,” given its relevance to today’s debate about schooling during COVID, at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30.
Watch the film and then listen to the film’s producer, Rona Richter, and its filmmaker, Lisa Molomot, discuss their 2013 film, the idea for which arose from an exchange about schoolage children in New Haven and their counterparts abroad in Switzerland, the outdoors, and a way to enrich a world view within our community. In a Q&A roundtable facilitated by Mindi Englart, faculty member of New Haven’s Cooperative Arts & Humanities Magnet High School, Richter and Molomot will take viewers through their collaboration. Use the link on elycenter.org on Aug. 30. (Suggested donation $6.)
The gala, too, will be online
New Haven’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas, which reported it had 120,000 virtual audience members from around the world in the past three months for its COVIDclipped, online 2020 edition, will hold a livestreamed Silver Anniversary Gala at 7 p.m. Sept. 14. There will be performances by fest-favorite entertainers Acrobuffos, Kaki King and Lila Downs. Participants (at $50) will also get the chance to bid on auction items, honor founders Anne T. Calabresi and Dr. Roslyn Milstein Meyer, and meet new Executive Director Shelley Quiala. If you pay extra and pick it up, you can share in four-course meal from Zinc while you’re watching.